Some farmers criticize me for looking toward the future in agriculture. Why? I’m not sure except that the future isn’t like the past and they don’t like change. When I reminisce about the good old days growing up on an 80-acre farm, they get misty eyed. But when I talk about the big farms and big machines of the future they get angry. Today we will compromise. We’ll talk about a family farm wiht a father and three sons, with crops, dairy cows and some hired workers. We’ll talk about a farm family that’s been tilling the same ground for a lot of years. One that has gradually grown and evolved into an agricultural enterprise that’s ready for the future. Iliat’s r ————————— Take a step toward a successful form send this coupon Agway Rmn Systems for optimum efficiency Milking • Feeding • Manure Handling Efficiency is the key to farm success today. That’s why you should know about the most effi cient equipment available. Agway Farm Systems equip ment is tested and researched at the Agway Farm Research Center. Once the equipment has met our standards it has to meet your farm’s standards. Agway sales people will help you select the equipment that will work the most efficiently on your farm. For example, the Chore-Time ® Please send me more information about: □ Milking □ Feeding D Manure Handling □ Agri-Lease ® by Telmark ® □ Student □ I’d like to tour the Agway Farm Research Center NAME. ADDRESS. COUNTY. STATE. Mall to. Agway Inc., Distribution Services, PO Box 4933, Syracuse, NY 13221 _ Working for people who work thehmd (*y) E Farm Talk ■K, Jerry Webb Fair Hill Farms, Inc. and the Ed Fry family. A family farm in the truest sense of the word. I had an opportunity to visit Fair Hill Farms recently while touring with a group of DuPont Company sponsored European agricultural journalists. Although I had driven by the facility on Rt. 213 south of Kennedyville in Kent County, Md. many times, that was my first real visit. It was an eye opener. Imagine if you will the monumental task of milking 500 cows every day. An awesome task in conventional terms. But at Fair Hill it’s done with relative ease. This gigantic herd is milked three times a day for management and production reasons and that divides into three eight-hour shifts. Drop Tube Feeding System al lows you to feed smaller amounts of concentrate more frequently, thus improving feed efficiency while saving labor. And to make your money work more efficiently, there’s Agri- Lease® by Telmark®. So you don’t have to buy the equipment, just lease it. This way your money can be in the bank earning interest. Fill out the coupon and find out today about the most effi cient farm systems equipment. TOWN. PHONI During each shift, one modem milkmaid milks all 500 cows in a highly efficient 20-stall milking parlor. That’s right, one young lady does it all in a fast paced, well organized routine that goes on 24 hours a day. There is hardly a moment day or night when cows aren’t being fed, milked or otherwise attended to at Fair Hill Farms. Two more workers handle the bam chores including feeding, health maintenance, breeding and cleanup. Feeding those 500 cows plus a couple of hundred more at two other locations is no small task. Some 1500 acres are needed to provide alfalfa, rye and com for silage. High moisture com and other feed additives are either raised or purchased to provide what a computer determines is the least cost ration for a given period of time. Total cropping at Fair Hill Farms, including owned and rented ground, approaches 4,000 acres and requires considerable labor input at peak seasons even though the farm is equipped with the latest in large tillage and harvesting equipment You look around Fair Hill Farms and you don’t see any space age technology. It’s a good solid very large operation using the best of today’s technology. And good dairyman with enough money and enough nerve could duplicate the facility, maybe even improve on it. Talking with one of the sons and LF 1/5/85 with some of the employees, I was impressed with how practical the operation is. It isn’t a show place, even though it’s quite impressive due to its size. The loose housing facility where the cows spend their time when they are not being milked is enormous. Larger than most airplane hangers. While I don’t have the dimensions, I doubt that the facility would fit on a football field. What does it take to make an operation like this work? Ed Fry, Jr. says three principal ingredients: enough financial backing to put it all together, a strong commitment on the part of the Fry family to make the plan work and, most important in his mind, dedicated employees who understand initiative, respon sibility and productivity. It’s interesting to note that the cow milkers were all female and none had previous cow milking experience. They were taught on the job to do it the Fair Hill way. They spend the shift much as any factory worker might, dressed in a white uniform, milking 500 cows in a reasonable but not fancy en vironment. They are paid well Goodwill to conduct drive In Lancaster LANCASTER - “Get that Good Feeling - Do a Goodwill Trade in!” is a statement that will be heard throughout Lancaster County School Districts during Goodwill Industries’ Ninth Annual School Drive. Beginning Jan. 8 and continuing through February, over 22,000 elementary and special education students will be offered an op portunity to participate in the Goodwill Trade-In. Information explaining the event will be available at all schools within these districts on assigned dates. This year Goodwill wants to trade something old for something new. Students are told to go home and find a large, sturdy, grocery bag; fill it with usable items such as shirts, sweaters, shoes, toys, etc. and return it to the school within the designated time frame. When the student returns the bag to the school, he/she then trades it for a new “GOODIE BAG.” “Goodie Bags” have been developed especially for the 1985 Lancaster Fannin*, Saturday, January S, 1955-A37 compared to factory workers in the area and they are given a full range of benefits. Considering the job that they do, it’s appropriate that they be well compensated. As mentioned previously, I don’t consider Fair Hill Farms futuristic. The technology used there is probably the best of what’s available today. The size of the operation is way above average and the management philosophy is very practical. It’s easy to look at Fair Hill Farms and guess that’s the way most milk will be produced in a few more years. It makes sense that 10- and 12-cow herds of my boyhood are gone; so are the small farm operated bottling plants. The 30- cow herds aren’t making much money in today’s tight economy and if you look at the empty silos and abandoned milk houses dotting Delmarva’s landscape, it’s pretty clear that a lot of dairy farmers have gone out of the business. But there is a need for milk par ticularly here in the urbanized East. So large dairy farms are getting larger and the 500-cow herd of today may be just a suggestion of what the future holds. Co. Schools School Drive. They are heavy white and blue plastic bags that can be folded and carried in coat pockets, books, etc. They can be used to carry books, lunches, gym things, sweaters, etc. All items donated during the school drive are processed by disabled people in training at Goodwill and shipped to the four Goodwill stores to be sold. Money raised through the sale of the donated items is used to support training programs for disabled people at the rehabilitation center in Lancaster. The schools are assigned a 7-day period which includes a weekend. The following are the dates for 1985: Columbia School District, Jan. 8- 15; Conestoga Valley, Jan. 10-17; Donegal, Jan. 15-22; Ephrata, Jan. 17-24; Elizabethtown, Jan. 22-29; Lampeter-Strasburg, Jan. 24-31; Hempfield, Jan. 29 to Feb. 5; Eastern Lane. County, Jan. 31 to Feb. 7; Manheim Township, Feb. 5-12; Cocalico, Feb. 7-14; Penn Manor, Feb. 19-26; Pequea Valley, Feb. 21-28.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers